News:

For the most up to date reports about what is going on with the forum, and the latest topics of interest, throw us a like on Facebook, and if you're wanting some light banter with the seasoned and spiced members, join the Second Sphere Members Group.

Main Menu

X-Wing Regional[Preston] Tournament Report [33 Players]

Started by Arguleon-veq, June 19, 2014, 10:56:17 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Arguleon-veq

This was to be our second tournament after a great showing from our guys at our first [1st,2nd,5th,13th out of 36].

We went into this event putting a little more pressure on ourselves thanks to the results we managed at our first event and for me obviously anything less than first would be a backwards step!. I did make a few minor changes to my list though after some pretty heavy losses in some warm-up games to a rebel swarm consisting of 3 X-Wings and 2 Y-Wings.

Here is what I would be taking -

Howlrunner;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE
;
Krassis; Heavy Laser Cannon

So I had dropped the Recon Specialist on Krassis for extra pilot skill on my regular TIE's. I figured that with the amount of low pilot skill rebel ships around [3B2A etc] that I would be better served with that than the extra durability that the Recon Spec usually provides Krassis. Of course it would be a total waste of points if coming up against a whole list at PS4 or above, so I really didn't want to be facing Bloody Daggers. Some of the guys stuck with their lists, some mixed it up, here is what we took.

Dan -

Biggs;
Rookie X;
Rookie X;
Dagger B
; Fire Control System, Heavy Laser Cannon

So Dan was sticking with his 'Plan B' list.

Ste -


Storm Advanced; Cluster Missiles
Storm Advanced; Cluster Missiles
Captain Jonus; Assault Missiles, Seismic Charge
Backstabber;

Ste had really gone for a change, this list had actually done really well for him in practice games though, beating my Blue Thunder rebels [which I had never lost with] and pushing my usual list very close.

Adam -

Chewwy; Draw Their Fire
Rookie X;
Proto A;
Gold Y
;

Adam was struggling to settle on a list and so decided to go for the reliable Falcon and a bit of everything else.

Simo -

Howlrunner;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Lambda[PS2];
Advanced Sensors, Engine Upgrade

Simo had done pretty well in his practice games with this list, it had only really struggled with my list thanks to Krassis usually taking out Howlrunner early on him.

::Game 1::

Dagger B; Fire Control, Heavy Laser
Dagger B; Fire Control, Heavy Laser
Proto A;
Proto A
;

I was pretty worried about this squad as it had the potential to take out Howlrunner really early with those B's and I figured I would struggle to get a good bead on those A's late game.

Luckily for me, my opponent split his force into A's and B's and had the A's facing off against my entire squad at the start of the game. Thanks to this I killed an A in the first engagement before the B's could swoop into range on the flank. I then let his second A get away in order to hard turn into those B's which killed one for the loss of an Obsidian. In the next turn we K turned and faced off again which seen me take down his second B for a bit of damage on Howly and after that it was just a case of chasing his last A down and finishing it off.

::Game 2::

Bounty Hunter; Proximity Mine
Lambda[PS2]; Heavy Laser
Academy TIE;
Academy TIE;
Academy TIE;


I wasn't too worried about facing this list, there was a lot in it but nothing that really scared me.

He deployed spread out right across his own board edge which would let me isolate pretty much whatever I wanted and gang up on it before he could bring his whole squad to bear on me. Things started off pretty terribly though when the Bounty Hunter at long range [with no focus as it evaded] killed Howly despite her focus, 3 hits, 4 blanks. Despite this I still put quite a lot of damage into his Shuttle.

I took out his shuttle next turn and then started working on his TIE's as his Bounty Hunter was still slowly trying to get into the fight fully thanks to being deployed quite wide. I started killing off his TIEs but lost another of my own and Krassis had taken a bit of damage.

Once I engaged his Bounty Hunter I lost a full, undamaged TIE to his Proximity Mine which was pretty frustrating. By this point though the time was running down and I was pretty sure I wouldn't have time to kill off his Bounty Hunter which was all he had left. So with this in mind I just kept Krassis and my last TIE out of range for a few turns.

Coming into the last turn Krassis still had 2 hull and my opponent managed to just squeeze into range of him with his Bounty Hunter but this was range 3, through an asteroid and I had a focus. He gets 3 hits, I get 4 blanks again, killing Krassis and the game ends in a full win for him as I only have 1 Obsidian TIE left.

A frustrating loss but I had to laugh about it. That Bounty Hunter of his was definitely man of the match!.

::Game 3::

Red X;
Red X;
Dagger B
; Adv Sensors
Dagger B; Adv Sensors

This was exactly the list I didn't want to face but it would be an interesting challenge.

We started out very slowly dancing around on opposite sides of the asteroids before we engaged, Krassis did very poorly over the first few turns and just wasn't getting any hits. He was taking some fairly heavy fire in return and his first hull damage was a critical that lost him that Heavy Laser re-roll.

Once we got in tight and ended up with a bit of a crash in the middle of the table it was always going to be an uphill battle for me against those Sensors, the B's having actions in amongst these crashes proved pretty decisive and my TIE's fell away pretty quickly.

Krassis still wasn't putting out enough damage but I had taken down a B and an X and had his other B down to one hull, but his final X had only lost its shields. Krassis was down to a couple of hull against his final two ships and although I just couldn't get the hits to finish his ships off, Krassis did lead a charmed life on the defence for a few turns getting double evade after double evade, even getting a triple evade at one point. In the end though Krassis didn't manage to do any more damage at all and his hot evade dice finally ran out, giving me my second loss of the day.

::Game 4::

Han Solo; Gunner, Marksmanship
Gold Y; Ion Cannon Turret
Gold Y; Ion Cannon Turret

A pretty solid list but Falcons aren't really something that tends to trouble my list too much so I thought I had a good chance in this one.

As it turns out my dice were very lucky this game. In the first engagement I took Han down to 1 hull and I had also managed to get a critical through on him that meant he wouldn't be shooting next turn. Han did kill a TIE in that first exchange though and he managed to Ion Krassis. After my crazy dice in that initial engagement though there wasn't too much my opponent could do, I finished off Han next turn and then it was a case of slowly hunting down the Y's with my squad although he did manage to bring Howly down in the end too.

::Game 5::

I was drawn against Simo for my final game and as we both stood on 2 wins, a win for either of us would give us a decent shot at making the top 8 cut. I was pretty confident though as our lists had faced each other 4 or 5 times and I'd won them all thanks to Krassis' extra firepower being able to take out his Howly early.

Howlrunner;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Obsidian TIE;
Lambda[PS2];
Advanced Sensors, Engine Upgrade

Simo deployed his Shuttle out on a flank and got a really nice block in with it on a couple of TIEs and Krassis for our first engagement. This should have given him the action advantage in our initial shoot off but he decided to barrel roll to try and get out of some of my arcs. He did get out of a few but it left 2 of his TIEs still in arc of everything so I just focused my fire on those and was taking less damage in return thanks to him losing some focus for his barrel rolls.

Again my dice were pretty good here and his were pretty poor and I come off much better in this firefight. Krassis as usual did enough damage on Howly to allow my Obsidians to finish her off. After this it was a lot of dogfighting but with him losing his ship advantage and his Howly re roll it was pretty one sided as I could ignore his Shuttle for a few turns once it had done its early blocking action. By the time it was back in the fight I was just about finished with his TIEs and could just stay on its tail to finish it off.

::Standings::

Ste hadn't done too well and only managed a single win, and Simo's two wins wouldn't be enough to see him make the top 8 cut. Me and Adam both sat on 3 wins each and Dan was in the lead going into the cut with 5 wins out of 5.

In the end me and Adam both missed out on the cut. I finished 11th, Adam finished 12th, we had missed out on strength of schedule.

Dan would go into the cut though and cruised through his round of 8 with a big win against a triple Interceptor list. In the semi final he come up against;

Wedge; Swarm
Blue B;
Blue B;
Biggs;


Some nice early moves from Dans opponent gave him a commanding lead which Dan struggled to come back from and so Dan finished 3rd/4th in the end.

All in all though our results weren't too bad as a group, although that was certainly helped by Dan's good finish!. So in the end we finished;

Dan - 3rd/4th
Me - 11th
Adam - 12th
Simo - 16th
Ste - 24th
X-Wing Tournaments;
1st - 38
11th - 33

BigToof

Sounds neat!
I've always wanted to get into this game, being a Sci-Fi fan and all.
Is it easy to start?

Best,
-BT
BigToof Points:

Cammerz: 8
Waaaghpower: 1
The Man They Call Jayne: 3
Mabbz: 6
Archon Sharrek: 3